Hey, Do You Want to Come Out and Play the Game?

It's never too late.

That's the chorus from a song called "Century Plant" by Victoria Williams.  It's one of those songs that makes me tear up every time I hear it because of how hopeful it makes me feel.  It reminds me that no matter how old we get, we can always start something new.  We can always wake up and start really living.  As the song says, you never know when someone will bloom.

If you can't tell, I've been a little introspective lately.  My grandmother, who died last June, would have been 100 years old today, and I wanted to do something to celebrate her.  So, Mr. flyskim and I went to my Nana's favorite restaurant for lunch:  IHOP. 

Yes, the good old International House of Pancakes.  My Nana loved to go there because she could get breakfast all day long.

Just look at the man hands on me.  Wow.  As Tyra would say, they look like baseball mitts.  I definitely don't model head-to-toe.

I don't know where her love for scrambled eggs came from, but they were the very first thing that I learned how to cook one summer when Nana took me for my mother's annual vacation from me.  We always went somewhere every year.  Southern California, Canada, Hawaii.  I think I might have been eight, and I made eggs for her and her sister, Bessie, every morning for at least a week in the little kitchenette in our rented house. 

Nana would always order a scrambled egg, a pancake and bacon, so I did, too.

I'm sure they were horrible and rubbery, but Nana and Auntie Bessie cleaned their plates every morning.  I felt very grown up and accomplished.  It's so funny what things take on a significance in the course of a life.  Scrambled eggs are one of the great, lasting connections I have with my grandmother.  Who could have predicted that?

Mr. flyskim usually doesn't support my taking pictures in restaurants or I would photograph more of our meals out.  Particularly the ones that are very pretty.  He suspects that people will think I'm a little strange.  But this time, he humored me and even posed with his lunch so long as I promised not to photograph him while he was eating.
 

We also did a little shopping and picked up a bench for our kitchen at a local antiques mall, and I made a small purchase in my grandmother's memory.  She collected and displayed china teacups for much of her life.  I'm sure they were all Shelley which are highly collectible today, but I and my teddy bear had many a tea party with them.  I also added to her collection indiscriminately, not realizing that she collected a particular kind.  I'm not sure what my uncle did with her cups.  He'd been selling her things bit by bit for several years without my mother or I knowing, and most everything is long gone.  So, I decided that I'd start rebuilding it myself with this little creamer/sugar bowl/teacup set.  Not Shelley, but I plan on working my way up the china food chain as I become more knowledgeable.

I'm actually on the lookout for this set.  This was my grandmother's china.  It's by Shelley.  The Vogue Blocks pattern in coral.  My mother originally thought it might have been my great-grandmother's, but as I've researched it, I've discovered that this pattern is from the 1930s, brought to the United States by my grandmother when she and my granddad first emigrated from Scotland.  It's likely the china she received when she got married.

So, happy birthday, Nana.  I love you, and you are very much missed. 

Oh, and actual sewing content later this week.  I have that dress I posted about a few weeks ago and am also nearly done with Simplicity 2501.  Be prepared for my to beat myself up a little in that post.

Snowpocalypse Comes to Portland!

This morning's view.

Okay, when you compare this to what the rest of the country had to suffer through, maybe not so much.  But it's enough to justify a late start to work and jeans and boots today, and that was really all I was hoping for. 

My Heart to You is Given

Oh, do give yours to me.

We usually don't do Valentine's Day, but I need all of the holiday cheer I can get right now. For the occasion, here are five things that I love.

1. My little family. It might only be two people and two cats, but to me, it's everything.

2.  This bag.  The Kate Spade Washington Mews Large Marcela.  In Peacock.  I know that I just got a major handbag last summer, and I carry it every day.  But I can't see it transitioning to warmer weather.  Now all I have to do is figure out a way to fit this into my budget.

3.  London.  To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, America is my country, but London is my home town.  I've never been anywhere else where I've felt so comfortable.  Every time I go back, it's like I've never left.  Everything is just where my memory left it.  I unrealistically dream of retiring with Mr. flyskim and our cats here one day, and as soon as we hit the Powerball, we'll do it.  We might have to play more than once a year, though.

4.  Competitive reality shows.  Especially if the contestants have to model.  Or make something.  Anything where people have trouble separating themselves from the end product.  America's Next Top Model, Make Me a Supermodel, Top Chef, Top Design, The Worst Cooks in America.  You get the idea.  You will also note that Project Runway is absent from this list.  After last season, Heidi, Nina and Michael are dead to me.  I still love you, Tim, but I just can't have my heart broken like that anymore.

5.  Cake.  The food, not the band.  And not cupcakes.  Full sized ones.   You may think you love cake, but you don't.  You only like cake.  I loooove cake so much that I nearly married my wedding cake instead of my husband.  I love cake so much that I flove it.  

The one above is the cake that I brought to work today for Valentine's Day.  It's chocolate made from this recipe.  Totally easy although it does take a leap of faith to pour the boiling water in because this will not look like a traditional cake batter.  The icing is the one from the back of the powdered sugar box with raspberry puree added for flavor and color.  This is a work-in-progress because I never add enough sugar to keep the icing from being runny.  But it's delicious.

Anyway, those are my loves this year.  I hope you all had a wonderful day.

Poppies For A Weary Mind

Sorry about the protracted absence.  Our virus program ate our computer, and we've only just gotten it straightened out.  There's also been some personal drama (not the least of which was a broken tripod), and I can say with great certainty that 2011 is letting me down already.  Unfortunately, this also means that my sewing time has been drastically reduced, but I hope that this is, likewise, straightened out.

So, without further ado, here is my first finished garment of 2011, Simplicity 2580.  I finished this dress right after the new year, so my memory of this might be a little hazy.  I picked up this ITY jersey from Fabric Depot on a whim when my only purchase was supposed to be interfacing.  I loved it so very much for its bright colors and abstract poppy pattern, and I dug through my patterns searching for something that wouldn't complete with the happy spring flowers.  I was originally going to make View C but ended up using the cowl neckline from View D instead.  I'm glad that I did because I don't have to wear a cami under the dress for work.

Nephew J is making a cameo appearance.

There are a lot of things to like about this dress that have nothing to do with the snazzy fabric (although that's part of the attraction in my book).  It's simple, first of all.  Just seven pieces, and it would only have been six if I'd cut the skirt back on the fold which is entirely possible.  In fact, I'm not even quite sure why there is a center back seam in the skirt at all.  The self-facing of the top front is very neat and while I had a few problems picturing how it went together in my head, I just followed the instructions and trusted that this would all work out.  I followed the instructions as drafted, but had to do some futzing to get the folded portion of the cowl to line up with the finished back neckline without gapping.  I will probably make the v-neck version, too and plan to attempt the Slapdash Sewist's excellent tutorial for finishing the neckline on that version.

Tripod fixed.  Can finally get my ladypose on.  Note to self:  Watch ANTM for pointers.

About the sleeves, while I love the little flutter sleeves, I think that the instructions could be a little more clear about whether the ends of the sleeve are supposed to meet at the bottom of the armscye or overlap slightly.  If they're just supposed to meet, it takes a bit of maneuvering to get them inserted and sewn correctly.  If you don't get this just right, part of the underarm ends up being left unfinished. 

So, the 10 pounds I put on over the last very bad year apparently went straight to my butt.

Overall, I really liked this pattern.  It's a great little dress, and I've been relying on stretchy clothes over the past couple of months because of the weight gain while my father was undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments that exploded all over the place for most of the fall and part of January (the flyskim Dad remains cancer-free following his most recent pet scan, by the way).  It was nice to be able to put something together and be finished over a weekend as I've also had a lot of problems sustaining productivity with everything that's been going on.  Based on the weekly wear that this dress has been getting, I'd call this a major success. 

I recently also finished McCalls 5974 and will report on that over the weekend. 

However, that is going to be the last stretch fabric for a little while.  I need to work on properly fitting woven fabrics again and get back to several projects that have been allowed to languish since last fall.